Programmable devices in complex electrical circuits are in widespread use for changing the circuits after fabrication. A laser fuse and an electrical fuse are two types of programmable devices. A laser fuse is programmed or blown by a laser tool before chip packaging. An electrical fuse can be programmed at any time by a fuse programming circuit within a packaged chip. The fuse programming circuit passes a high current through an electrical fuse to burn or program the fuse. The electrical fuse is said to be burned or blown when a current larger than a threshold current of about 5 mA flows through the fuse for a time period adequate to burn away the fuse, until the resistance of the blown fuse increases to a range of hundreds of kilo Ohms, indicating the fuse is open. After a fuse is blown, or programmed, the fuse state or fuse status is detected or sensed to determine that the fuse is blown or un-blown. A fuse state detection circuit senses the resistance value of the fuse to determine the fuse state. The fuse state detection circuit must detect whether a fuse is inadequately blown, to avoid detecting the inadequately blown fuse as being open.